World Athletics Championships: Brave bronze for Hull

17 September 2025

World Athletics Championships: Brave bronze for Hull

Jessica Hull has claimed an historic 1500m medal on day four of the world championships being held in very warm and humid conditions in Tokyo this week. In a brave performance Jess risked a medal as she challenged for gold.

Brave bronze for Hull

Going into the women’s 1500m Jessica Hull was ‘on paper’ a strong medal hope, but races are not run on paper, but in a very tough race, Jess delivered with a bronze medal, to follow on from her silver at the Olympics in Paris.

She was tactically sound, running wide in the first 100m, she dropped into the perfect position, on the tail of favourite, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon. She steadfastly held the position, particularly at the bell when Kenyan Nelly Chepchirchir challenged Jess, resulting in some elbows flying.

“There was a bit of argy-bargy and the Kenyans were ganging up on me,” Jess said. “I was like I know exactly what you guys are doing here, you think you can go 1, 2, 3.”

Down the back straight on the final lap Kipyegon was accelerating and moving away from the field, except Jess who dug deep to follow her. Jess was chasing the top of the podium. It was not until about 100m to go Kipyegon was safe. But there was danger for Jess with Kenyan’s Dorcus Ewoi andNelly Chepchirchir closing.

Would Jess’s brave tactics cost her a medal?

With 30m to go Ewoi passed Jess, but she held off Chepchirchir in a dip at the line.

“I had to hold my own and I think I ran behind Faith so many times that I tried to stick like glue to her until she started pulling away and then I knew I had to fight through the line but I just kept them from doing the Kenyan sweep so I'm really proud.”

Jess agreed her brave running, chasing gold, nearly cost her a medal.

“I think running for the win probably cost me the silver tonight, but I think at the same time I wanted a gold. I knew I kind of had wiggle room, like at this point in my career, if I run for gold, I'm going to land amongst the medals, so I'm really proud of that effort.”

The final results were Faith KipyegonKEN 3:52.15, Dorcus Ewoi KEN 3:54.92, Jessica Hull AUS 3:55.16, Nelly Chepchirchir KEN 3:55.25.

History for Desleigh Owusu

UTS Norths athlete Desleigh Owusu became the first Australian women to compete in the triple jump at an Olympics or World Championships. Competing in the qualifying rounds, Desleigh fouled the first and third attempts, managing 13.58 on her second effort. She placed 14th in her qualifying round and 27th overall.

She was a little frustrated by the fouls.

“Yeah, they (fouls) will always be the death of me. It's something I definitely need to work on in the next season. I definitely don't think this performance today was a reflection of what I'm capable of but either way I'm just so happy to be here. “

Boyes beyond expectations

Considering he has not competed since April due to a fractured sacrum, Luke Boyes’ 6th place in his 800m heat in a time of 1:45.54, was remarkable. He was in the mix for progression to the final until 50m from the finish line.

"I'm very proud of what I did today," he told Channel 9.

"I really tried to enjoy this whole experience, didn't let the nerves of the race take away from that. I really wanted to enjoy the whole thing because it's been a pretty rough couple of months.

"It was a very emotional experience. I actually was kind of fighting back tears in marshalling because I couldn't believe I was here. It just meant a lot to be actually running."

He also battled Osteitis pubis last November, hampering his domestic season resulting in him struggling to just walk ahead of the Nationals where he nailed the world championships qualifier.

A scan post-nationals, by which point he couldn't walk, revealed the crack in his sacrum. It required 12 weeks rest, then he prepared for Tokyo for 13 weeks.

Sarah Carli into 400m hurdles semis

This year Sarah Carli has made some changes to her program, now training with Abbie Taddeo, she also decided to prepare for the world championships from Australia.

In the 400m hurdles heats Sarah ran a strong race, to place 5th in 55.23 and after a nervous wait secured progression to the semi-finals.

She walked into the mixed-zone, where she was to speak with the media, unsure if she had progressed.

“I know what it feels like to not have a ’Q’ next to your name and there was no Q next to mine.”

She was then informed she had progressed.

“I'm very relieved about that, that wait is very stressful.”

She spoke about a different preparation in Australia.

“We have a Japan World Champs. It's, you know, 10 hours from Australia. Let's stay home this year. So coming in here, I wasn't sure if we, had made the right decision. I really backed the team on my team's decision here.”

The heat run was just what she needed.

“But I think I needed a race. I'm so happy that I was able to get through today because I feel like there's more there for the semifinal. I just needed that kind of like that high intensity race in my legs.

“Based on what I've been doing at training, I know I'm in PB shape. The thing about the hurdles is you can be in PB shape and if you don't nail your stride pattern, the time often doesn't reflect the shape that you're in. That was a little bit messy today. There's a few things that we can clean up. So the fact that I was able to run a 55.2 off a really messy back end of my race, I know I'm going to have the confidence to attack that last part of the race. You just can't emulate that in training.”

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Jessica Hull (courtesy of World Athletics)